Artificial Intelligence is coming in full force as technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. Hollywood continues to debate its usage in films, and The Walt Disney Company reportedly scrapped a couple of ideas over the controversy.
Disney is working on a live-action remake of Moana, where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will reprise his role of Maui.
In a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, the studio came up with the idea to digitally clone Johnson and use a body double for some shots.
“Disney would work with AI company Metaphysic to create deepfakes of Johnson’s face that could be layered on top of Reed’s performance in the footage—a ‘digital double’ that effectively allowed Johnson to be in two places at once,” WSJ said.
Although the Black Adam star approved the idea, the studio “worried” that they “ultimately couldn’t claim ownership over every element of the film if AI generated parts of it.” The film studio and the AI company were seemingly unable to come to terms, and the footage was scrapped.
Disney’s upcoming Tron: Ares revolves around AI and the real-world implications of it. According to WSJ sources, “executives pitched the idea of actually incorporating AI into one of the characters in the sequel to the 1980s hit movie Tron as a buzzy marketing strategy.”
The AI-generated character would be a sidekick to Jeff Bridges’ character, but the idea was ultimately scrapped because “executives internally were told that the company couldn’t risk the bad publicity.”
Disney is very protective of its IP, and earlier this year, alongside NBCUniversal, it sued AI company Midjourney for copyright infringement.
